1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to content delivery systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for multicast delivery of program information.
2. Description of the Background Art
Digital content has gained wide acceptance in the public. Such content includes, but is not limited to: movies, videos, music, and the like. Consequently, many consumers and businesses employ various digital media devices or systems that enable the reception of such digital multimedia content via several different communication channels (e.g., a wireless link, such as a satellite link, or a wired link, such as a cable connection). Similarly, the communication channel may also be a telephony based connection, such as DSL and the like. Regardless of the type of channel, the digital content and/or the distribution of the digital content is typically secured using a conditional access (CA) mechanism and a digital rights management (DRM) mechanism (e.g., encryption/decryption using keys).
In some cases, digital content is delivered using a multicast content distribution mechanism, where the same content is delivered to one or more consumers at the same time. Such multicast content distribution is similar to conventional television broadcast systems. In some cases, there may be millions of consumers of a particular multicast streaming session. It is impractical to require each consumer to obtain authorization for viewing digital content delivered by a multicast streaming session using individual point-to-point connections to a conditional access portal. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a method and apparatus for multicast delivery of program information capable of providing authorization for viewing digital content.